Narcisse had always had moral flexibility, but she had never thought he would be capable of doing dubious experiments on already ill people and then making a deal with demons.
Had he known that the magic he had been given would curse and kill them? Or had he been sold a lie that the magic would cure them?
Delphi had seen for herself the way Narcisse would dispassionately write about the sick shifters, but that wasn't real evidence. It could have been him trying to be clinical and focused.
Delphi had never known her mother and had created a childish fantasy in her head that she had been a wonderful, caring person. Someone who would have raised Delphi like a daughter, instead of her barely being tolerated by the few faceless women Narcisse had paid to sometimes watch her until she was old enough to care for herself and him too.
But Cassiahadmarried Narcisse. Perhaps they were more alike than Delphi had wanted to imagine. Cassia knew about the heart of the château, and it was her handwriting that noted how it might be able to be used to power their own sigils.
Tenebrys had said that the heart had died the day Narcisse detonated the curse. They had used it for something, or they had killed it in the process.
The way Tenebrys had talked about it made it sound like it was a living entity. It had just been one more thing her parents had destroyed. Having to face the fact that both your parents were monsters was soul-destroying.
Delphi had gone through their notebook again and had started to match up the loose papers with dates in them. She was trying to get a full picture of what had happened, but her mother shared Narcisse's chaotic way of doing things.
As the day wore on, Delphi had a twisted feeling that something was rotted in her like it had been in them.
She had always tried to be better than Narcisse, but she had done things in the name of survival that she wasn't proud of. She had stolen food, used her beauty to gain charity, and had sold her body for coin. Even her arrangement with Gregoire for books had felt necessary at the time. Now it left her feeling dirty, and it annoyed her.
Narcisse was a controlling, manipulative bastard, and he had raised her to think of everyone she met as a potential mark. She had tried not to do anything that would hurt others, but she had still taken advantage of them.
It all paled beside the enormity of what her parents had done to Tenebrys and his people, and yet that insidious feeling that she was just like them still gnawed at her.
"I did what I had to do to survive," she whispered to herself and tried desperately to believe it.
So much of her life had been driven by fear. Fear of going hungry, fear of Narcisse selling her off, fear that she would be discovered with witch blood, fear that she would never break free and have a life of her own.
If she had been stronger, she would have left Narcisse years ago. Now Tenebrys had taken her in his place for all the pain her father caused, and she would never have her own life again.
To distract herself, she had tried doing some different experiments with her magic. If she blew up the place, Tenebrys would only have himself to blame for encouraging her to test her magic to begin with. All that had happened was a few tiny flames, and three cracked glass beakers from being unable to keep the heat in her hands steady.
By sunset, Delphi was frustrated and caught in her own mind's hell loop. She paced up and down her rooms, her skirt swishing. She had been forced to wear the hated thing that day because all the other clothes she had were wet from being washed.
She was still pacing and muttering when she saw Tenebrys standing by her door.
"What?" she demanded. "Why are you staring at me?"
"I wasn't sure if I should interrupt the argument you were having with yourself," he replied, folding his arms. "Research going well, I see."
"Oh, fuck you. I'm trying, okay? It's not my fault that both my parents were crazy, and I've been forced to suppress my magic my whole life," she replied. She gestured at the piles of papers she had been trying to collate into some sort of order. "The moreI try to understand what they did, the more frustrated I get. Did you come here just to annoy me or do you actually want something?"
"I only wanted to tell you that I've left more meat in the kitchen for you." Tenebrys's eyes glowed a fierce gold as they trailed over her from her toes to the tip of her head. "And to make sure that you were making some progress."
"It's only been a few days, and I'm trying to sort out their mess of notes. I also want to see whatever this heart of the château is. It might help me understand what they did," Delphi replied, trying not to read too much in the look he was giving her. She needed to remain impervious to them and what they implied. She could never forget that she was his prisoner.
"I told you, the heart is dead," Tenebrys said, his voice going flat and the heat dying in his eyes.
"You also said that you wanted me to try to break this curse," Delphi pointed out. "I need to see it to make more sense of these notes."
Tenebrys shook his head. "No."
"Why not?"
"Because the last time I let outsiders know about it, they fucking killed it. It's no use to you now that it's dead."
Delphi threw up her hands in frustration. "I don't know how many times I need to tell you that I'm not them."
"I don't trust you enough to believe it yet," Tenebrys snapped, all traces of politeness gone. "You don't need to see the heart. You need to do as you're told and don't try to dig where you aren't welcome."
